Hi! In theory it's officially spring, but in practice it is not. Below zero today, with a super cold wind and flurries. After an hour of braving the elements for the sake of Peg, I spent a large chunk of my day off watching episodes of The Hour and knitting another pair of socks. I'm really enjoying this show so far! I'm super into anything that's British, drama filled, with some crime/mystery. This one's set in the 50s, and that is most excellent. It's on Netflix, you should watch it.

Here are some more photos of my pysanka eggs that I made last week. Well, the ones that survived that is.

This one's actually Erick's. He went for a more abstract approach. He doesn't like it, but I do!

The back of Erick's egg.

On Wednesday I made another egg during Craft Night at NW. Unfortunately I dropped it on the table. Fortunately only the back cracked.

The hole in the back allows me to hang it on the wall! So all was not lost.

After my marathon of The Hour, I finally started some of my vegetable seeds. Just kale and some lettuce. Others I plan to direct seed once it's warm enough, and some plants I'll buy as starts later in the season (tomatoes from Tree and Twig for sure!). 

My mum got me this big 10-year gardener's journal for Christmas this year. It helps keep track of what plants you bought, when you planted them, how they faired, etc. Fun!

 Hopefully the weather will warm up soon!

bulbs galore

I used to work at Garden Import during school breaks when I was in high school. My mum worked there and it was a pretty handy and sweet part time job. I'd either be in the garden watering plants and moving things around, or inside packing away bulbs and seeds with amazing names. On Tuesday we received a box full of bulbs from Dugald and Lynn, the owners of the company. So nice! Tulips and crocuses and narcissus and alliums! I'm super excited to plant these bulbs. Especially since our landlord just gave us the go ahead to do whatever we want with the front yard. YAY! Now we just need to make some time to do it. ASAP! Before the ground freezes.

in the garden

Our first summer with a vegetable garden, and I'm loving it.



Sweet potato plant, hanging out in a pot. I didn't trust it to not sprawl all over the garden.



Jalapenos.



I can't wait until these tomatoes are ready to eat! Since this heat wave started I've been craving toasted tomato sandwiches. So simple, so delicious.



Lettuce.




Chard.



An onion flower, about to bloom.



The neighbour's grape vine is trespassing quite significantly on our backyard. If those grapes turn out extra tasty, I won't mind.



And the one lone craspedia bloom from my patch of 30ish craspedia plants. I seriously doubt they'll be ready for the wedding, so we ordered some in at a flower shop.

Last night I was in Thornhill meeting with my mum and her florist friend to discuss flowers. There aren't quite as many zinnias as we'd hoped, so we'll be using almost anything that's pretty from my mum's garden in addition to the planned flowers. My aunt Cheryl kindly grew some zinnias too (hopefully they're doing alright), and is also offering anything from her garden (e.g. asters, crocosmia, daisies). So that's great! I'm both nervous and excited to see how the flowers turn out. Only 10 more days!!!!

Sheridan college commission

I apologize for the poopie cell phone photos, but I thought I'd do a little post about the commission I'm working on. I mentioned it without photos about a month ago. Anyways, yesterday Natalie (one of my classmates who designed wallpaper for a "nook" at the college) and I went to check out the spaces where our work will be placed. The new campus is literally right beside Square One, and is still under major construction.

Anyways, the first photo is of my proposal, with samples of the knit elements and possible colours for the felt I will use for the panels.

The second photo shows where the piece will be located. It should start around the base of the second floor, and go up to the base of the third floor. The final measurements will be around 5' wide by 20-24' long. Lots. Of. Knitting. And the third photo shows how the atrium goes up many more stories. Iryna, the Sheridan rep who's been coordinating all of this, informed me that perhaps the college would want to commission me to add to the knit vertical garden every year, until it reaches up to the ceiling. WHOA.

Combined with wedding planning, other big exciting planning (oooh, mysterious...will reveal soon), and life in general, this project is sort of stressing me out. But it's ok. I'm sure it'll work out in the end.

a busy spring weekend

This weekend was absolutely packed full of potential activities: Doors Open Hamilton, the Spring Special Show at the Aberfoyle Antique Market, the AGH Spring Art Sale, The West Hamilton Artist Tour, and veggie/fruit planting activities up at Gary's farm. We were sadly only able to participate in a few of them.

After doing a little bit of gardening at home, Erick and I headed out with Thea to check out a few Doors Open locations.




First we visited William Reid's Cottage near Dundurn castle. It used to be home to William Reid, the gardener to Sir Allan Napier MacNab who was the owner of Dundurn Castle. It is over 150 years old, and the City of Hamilton has bought it and is in the process of restoring it back to the way it once was. This awesome linoleum flooring was peaking out from under some new flooring in one of the rooms. And I have no idea what that kitten thing is (maybe the lid to a cookie tin?), but I think they found it under the walls above the fireplace and decided to leave it there. I like it.





Next, we walked over to the kitchen garden itself. I was beyond impressed and extremely jealous of it. They were growing a large variety of vegetables, including asparagus. They had some of the asparagus covered with wicker baskets to keep them from turning green. This process is called etiolation. Since the plant is kept in the dark it does not produce chlorophyll (thus remains white) and allocates more of its energy to growing. Neat!

Thea will be doing a more detailed post on the Beehive blog about Dundurn Castle's kitchen garden later this summer, so keep an eye out for it!






Our last stop on the Doors Open tour was the Mohawk Trail School (we started late, and got mildly lost, so didn't have the time to see everything we wanted). Built in 1882, it is one of Hamilton's first one room brick school houses. It was actually in use until 1965. It was very cute. I loved the little enamel cups hanging in the hall.

After we visited the school, we went to up the farm where we planted a whole bunch of strawberry plants and 140 rhubarb plants. A lovely Saturday.

Sunday we got together at my grandma's house to celebrate the life of my grandpa. He didn't want a funeral, so just family got together to share memories instead. It was lovely. In addition to celebrating his life, we also celebrated mother's day and my brother's birthday.

A good weekend.